Sunday, October 10, 2010

A Purple River In The Graveyard

My house is a mess, the cupboards are down to Ramen and some canned goods nobody wants, there are piles of laundry in baskets, and I really need to pay some bills!
And I am ridiculously and embarrassingly late replying to e-mails.
Tomorrow, I keep telling myself. Tomorrow.
So much for my list-making—there are just not enough hours in a day! Not when you’re nearing the end of a Sammy Keyes book. Sheez! I get obsessed. It’s ridiculous. My poor family.
I did follow through on my commitment to run a half-marathon today, though. The route took us past the graveyard and that pyramid tomb I wrote about last week so I was able to point out the pyramid to my husband (who ran with me). As you (probably) know, I’ve been graveyard snooping to research Sammy Keyes and the Night of Skulls, and now I’m all excited because I had the bright idea that climbing the pyramid tomb on Halloween would be a blast. I’ve heard you can see the drive-in theater screen from the top, and now I want to take my kids and their friends and check it out.
Wanna come?
Anyway, a little random trivia that won’t matter to anyone anywhere but me, but here you go: I’ve discovered purple is the color to edit a manuscript with. I like pencil, but in the late hours (of which I’ve seen plenty of late) it’s easy to miss when entering the changes into the computer. Blue doesn’t show well enough, and I used to use red, but it always reminded me of my teacher days, correcting papers. And I don’t want to feel like I’m a teacher correcting papers. Especially since it makes me feel like an English teacher, and as you (probably) know, English teachers scare me. Bottom line: when I’m correcting my own paper with a red pen and it’s an “English” project, that’s just too much internal conflict for me to handle.
Enter the purple Bic ballpoint pen. I love it! Instead of thinking teaching or blood, it reminds me of my purple electric guitar. It’s also bright enough to pop off the page at me as I enter the changes on the computer.
I’ve used a river of purple ink this week. It spilled all over the graveyard chapters—which is a lot of the book. The rewrite process can be brutal, and it felt HUGE this time, but things are starting to shape up nicely, so that’s a big relief.
And in two days Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher will be out! FINALLY! I know some of you won galleys earlier in the year have already read it (and I must say, you’ve been amazingly good about not giving things away in the comments—thank you!). But for those of you who have been waiting, thank you so very much for anticipating the day for the past, what? Almost year?
I hope you like the "special thanks."
See you next week!

25 comments:

It's hard to go wrong with purple, but I have managed to. I painted my walls purple with spots, but I accidentally used Barney purple so now when people walk into my room they think I was going for the Barney-with-melanoma look.

That is so ironic because on Friday I was doing some partner thing at school with my friend Alex and she had a purple pen, and she was telling me on bow great purple looked on paper and with her handwriting. Hahah. :DYou do not even know how good my week is. <3I can't even believe it. Really. Ever since October 8th luck has been on my side. Isn't that funny, because Oct 8th is the day after my birthday and in Psycho Kitty Queen, Casey gave Sammy the horseshoe the day after her birthday and it really worked? (Well, it was in her head that it was working, but I'd believe it if It were me!)So yes. October 8th, my "enemy" apologizes to my face. Like genuinely. And my friends who had like backstabbed me and such also apologized and said they regretted it all. Etc. And then yesterday Rose, who's one of Kailee's lackies, texted me this long apology. And she was all, "I'm not even lying either. It's not like I care about getting in trouble because my parents don't care at all, but I just wanted to let you know that...etc"And TOMORROW is the day Wedding Crasher comes out. I might not get it until a couple days after cuz I ordered it, because my B&N doesn't carry SK, so yesss. But still. I'm just feeling so good. <3Okay except I have a book report and huge essay both due this Thursday. Crap. :xBlaahh. :)

YAY PURPLE! Purple is awesome. Purple walls, purple sheets, purple pens...Which reminds me...MARK STOLE MY PURPLE PEN! I'll never get it back. But PURPLE! OKay, no more soda for breakfast. But purple is so pretty. My house used to be purple...but then my mom decides to go ahead and make it yellow...I don't even like yellow...

AND YES! WEDDING CRASHER! FINALLY! I can't take it anymore. I need it now...I remember months ago when I couldn't sleep. But I think that was mostly because I was afraid that my sister would break the top bunk and fall on top of me. But I'm over that now. I look on the boars above my bed and I see stuff that I wrote on it. Its mostly numbers. 239 days left. 187 days left.

Tonight Imma write IM GETTING WC TOMORROW AND I DON'T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL SCHOOL GETS OUT FOR IT =]

I am very excited for your new book to come out! Sammy Keyes has changed my life, and I'm so glad that I started reading the series. I know stick up for myself more often, and I enjoy life and it's mysteries because Sammy inspired me to. Thanks!

I introduced my (I think, in my opinion) to the SK series. Short, sweet, and to the point, I got her hook on the series. Darn. :D But she's only had to wait for this new book to come out for a month. I'VE BEEN WAITING ALONG WITH A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE FOR NEARLY 2 YEARS (I think)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHE'S SOOOOO LUCKY!!!!!!! I envy her short time of waithing for SK. Endless torture to wait TILL TOMORROW!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!

"when I’m correcting my own paper with a red pen and it’s an “English” project, that’s just too much internal conflict for me to handle."Love it! You remind me so much of Sammy!Well of course you do, you're the reason she was brought into existence in the first place. And I have this purple pen that I use ALL the time. I'm not kidding. But it just recently ran out of ink. And my "recently" I mean 20 minutes ago :( Oh, I HAVE to go to the book store tomorrow to get SAMMY KEYES AND THE WEDDING CRASHER!!!! soo I was thinking of just walking down to Burlingame Avenue and going to the bookstoree???? and then BUYING IT!!! because no one's going to be home tomorrow. Then i can read it REALLY fast and then go to my volleyball game. Usually I love being in during a game and hate siting on a bench, but I hope I get benched the whole game so I can just read!!! :)))

I read an excerpt of sammy keyes on my kindle........ AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T WAIT TILL IT GETS TO MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wvd im soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad u exist cuz sk is a HUDE part of my life (i started to read it in second grade)and i would be totally incomplete without it!!!!!!

I sooooo just can not wait for sk13 to come! Ok, i know it has already come out, but I still haven't gotten it! I love purple! Used to be my favorite color, now aqua. But still, I love it! I wonder if Sammy likes purple.....? Hmmmm.....

Holy Smokes. Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher was amazing. Best Sammy Keyes I've read so far. It was so so so so so good. I was sad when it ended. I have to wait one whole year to read another one. Lol, its like the whole process all over again. It'll be fun though. But seriously, the book was really good. The mystery tied in with every character so well. Mikey was adorable in the book too. He reminds of me of the little boy in the movie Up. Billy was awesome, we got to see a side of Billy we never saw before. And I knew Heather was the one who sent that lousy text message to Sammy all along... whoa I'm giving away spoilers to anyone who hasn't read the book. The last page was was amazing... it was epic. Hehe. Thanks for writing amazing stories that make me feel good.

haha yeah i definitely agree!! It was so cool to see more about Billy! I love love lovved his character :) and it was so great and fun to read i couldn't put it down! so funny =)!Great job!!!! thanks for such amazing books !!

I juuuust finished it ahah. I literally just sat locked in my room after school reading. I could've gone faster but why should I hurry? :)ITWASREALLYGOOD. Like, this one part near the end made me laugh so hard I couldn't stop for like an hour and I ran into my older sister's room and showed her and we both were just cracking it. I dont think it was meant to be funny but the way Sammy thought it was just so funny.It was when she was noticing that reeeeally old couple and how they were holding hands.This was the funny part

A million years ago they said, 'til death do us part'.

The reason thats so funny is just the way Sammy just thinks "a million years ago". Like, she just assumes that since they're super old like that they were married "a million years ago". I dont know, it made me laugh at her bluntness of it all.

So my favorite part in the whole book was when she pushed Heather in the mall for insulting Mikey. Not because she pushed Heather, but because WHY she did it and all that stuff. Again, I dont know why, I just did.

And my favorite Casey Part (because I just have to have one) wasnt necessarily one with Casey in it (since Casey wasnt in the book much in person...), but its still my favorite. When Sammy was in the back of the van freaking out about dying, and then she's thinking like, she doesnt want to die yet because she'll never see him again. :D hee hee.

Okay so I won't say anything huge cuz not everyone has read it yet buuuuut i will say i loved it.

Oh, and I really want to know more about Billy and his family. And all that type of stuff.

Wedding Crasher is AMAZING so far. I'm not done yet. I love Billy! "I'm a anaconda from Rwanda, hug me back or I attack!" Best part!!!! I want his chicken hat!!!!! I don't wanna spoil it, but OMG Casey could not have sent that text, it's just not like him!!!! Sasha is kinda strange... But having six brothers will do that to you!

I JUST READ THE BOOK!!! AH!!!!! it was SOOOOOO good and i like the ending a LOT!!!!! but i was sad when i finished it because i have been waiting for it for like half a year and now i finished it :( it was worth the wait though! and LOL Heathers phone! cant wait for the next book!!!!

I keep saying tomorrow too… about homework, and cleaning, and EVERYTHING. Including commenting on your blog, mostly because when I comment here I want to say a lot and that takes some time which I can't seem to find anymore. I've read every post though, and miss coming here, so everything else is just going to have to go on pause whenever you update! Ah, purple :). I had this purple ink pen that I used for EVERYTHING back in 9th grade. It actually lasted for a long while, but I hated when it died. And yes, red ink SCREAMS corrections from an English teacher! I actually asked a teacher if they HAD to use red once, just because I hated seeing it. I got looked at like I was crazy…"why don't you like red?" she asked with a puzzled expression… she just didn't get it. And just so you know, I haven't fallen off a cliff (worse... I'm working on college applications!). Thank you for your amazing writing and spirit, you truly are an inspiration to me!~Elizabeth~